Improv Lab Sounds

Little late to the party,

But damn I'm happy! 2023 was my first serious year as an artist. I've launched my website around january, created my IG account in februari before starting off with my business in march.

I wouldn't have done it without and and all of you who streamed my songs.

What I'm going to improve on in 2024 tho;
- MORE songs (only launched one single of my own, and then two collab songs)
- MORE collabs with dope artists
- MORE rap skills (still lackin ngl)
- MORE high-quality production (never been to a studio)
- MORE streams cause I'm greedy
- www.MORE.com/MORE

Thank u and have a wonderful 2024.

ATTENTION PRODUCERS!

Want to win up to $200 with a side of dope merch and accesoires?

1st place:
$200
Musical Note Hoodie (As seen in thumbnail)
"No. 1 Producer" mug (As seen in thumbnail)
DAW Shortcuts mousepad (DAW of choice)
25% Lifetime discount on our sample shop

2nd place:
$100
Musical Note Hoodie
DAW Shortcuts mousepad
25% Lifetime discount on our sample shop

3rd place:
$50
Musical Note Hoodie
DAW Shortcuts mousepad
25% Lifetime discount on our sample shop

Want more info? Comment "Comp2023" and I'll hit you up personally!

MCK Out!

UPDATE! On our competition.

If you haven't already heard, we are holding a producing competition with massive prizes!
First deadlines were supposed to be on the 31st of October, but there are still spots left.

So, if you're a producer, and you want to know more, simply comment "Comp" in this comment section, I will send you a personal DM.

MCK out.

(PS: Make sure to share or tag your producer friends!)

🎧 IMPROV LAB BEAT COMPETITION 2023 🎧

🎉 Finally! Because we reached 500 followers, we're hosting a producing competition with a K.O. round! 🥊 Audience votes can get you bonus points. (Note: the more followers you have, the fewer points you get; bonus points capped at 2.)

🔢 The competition consists of three stages:
1️⃣ - Qualifying Stage: Out of 100 max. contestants, we'll select the better half.
2️⃣ - Selection Stage: Out of 50 contestants, we'll grade and pick 16 final competitors to fight in the knock-out rounds.
3️⃣ - Knock-out Stage: The final 16 producers will face off in this stage, where we will compare their scores.

⛔ Pretty much everything is allowed except:
Remixes
Over-excessive use of popular samples

📥 Submit now! (link in post)
🗓️ Submissions deadline: October 31st, 2023
🏆 Stage 1 winners announcement: November 15th, 2023
🏆 Stage 2 winners announcement: November 30th, 2023
🏆 Stage 3 (Knock-out) results: from December 3rd to December 12th, 2023.
(Note: Voting will happen each day; results get posted 24hrs later).

❓ Q&A ❓
Q: How does the scoring work? Is it fair?
A: We use a scoring sheet with parameters graded 1-10. Your average score will be the mean of these points. Bonus points from knock-outs get added to improve your average. Scoring does account for follower count. For a detailed explanation, visit our website.

🎁 Q: What are the prizes?
A: All top 3 winners receive a cash prize, a 25% lifetime discount on our sample shop, and a free DAW shortcuts mousepad. Plus, first place gets a quality hoodie and a " #1 Producer" coffee mug.

📘 Read more about the rules on our website!

THE BEAT BIBLE - COMMANDMENT 4 (PART I) 📖🎵

At the time of posting this, I'm still writing the blog. This one is so juicy, so much information (which is also very useful), that it needs some time.

So, I've decided to just release a small part of the knowledge ahead of time. Remember, this is just a tiny fraction of what you can find in the blog, and the book will be EVEN BETTER! (For instance, commandment 4 will have a mixing checklist, listening exercises, and theoretical exercises, and more!)

(This is a short form version of our physical book, which we are working on. Find the link to our blog in our highlights, or simply go to www.improvlabsounds.com, and click on "The Beat Bible" in the menu)

In this one:

Three different types of mixing techniques explained!
(Read the blog for FIVE MORE, and a whole lot more stuff involving mixing)

🚨NEW SITE UPDATE🚨

Greetings everyone!

We have finally added a beat section to our site, along with the possibility to book a custom song deal through our site (see "Custom Beatpacks" in our highlights), or go to the new site and read the info there!

We are also excited to announce even more changes coming soon:
- Separate mixing/mastering services at good prices, while retaining the quality.
- Separate publishing services at good prices.
- Filter function for our beats page
- Much more!

THE BEAT BIBLE - COMMANDMENT 3 (PART I) 📖🎵

(Short-form version of our blog and book for people who don't want to read a lot of text. Find the link in our highlights🔗)

In this one:

How to play all basic triads (3-noted chords) 🎹, more in-depth explanation on our blog on our website!

Stay tuned for part II this Saturday 📆, and definitely stay tuned for commandment 4: "Thou Shalt Learn the Basics of Mixing", where we will help you all out on how to:

Stay consistent with your mixes 🔄
Understand the mixing process 🔍
Become a great listener👂
Become a versatile producer 🎧
& much more.

THE BEAT BIBLE - COMMANDMENT 2 (PART II) 📖

(Short-form version of our blog and book for people who don't want to read a lot of text, find the link in our highlights)

In this one:
- The importance of sound-selection (don't miss out!)
- Best sources for samples (2 free and 1 paid)

Stay tuned for the next commandment next week!

📖 THE BEAT BIBLE - COMMANDMENT 2 📖

(Short-form version of our blog and book for people who don't want to read a lot of text, find the link in our highlights)

The second commandment is out, and it's much more juicy than the last one.

Read about the importance of sound selection and synthesizing, and then read the guide on how to craft your first basic synth sounds!

If you want to read about more topics like sound selection and synthesis, visit our blog (link in our "Beat Bible" highlights). There you will find a much more detailed version of this post!

Follow us to stay updated on the book!

📖 THE BEAT BIBLE - COMMANDMENT 1 📖

(Short-form version of our blog and book for people who don't want to read a lot of text, find the link in our highlights)

Dive into the first commandment, where we highlight the essence of music production. This commandment is meant to explain what music production exactly entails, and why it's important to learn about the history of music.

If you want to read about more topics like the music production process, and what is needed to start producing, visit our blog (link in our "Beat Bible" highlights).

Follow us to stay updated on the book!

🔴 BLOG IS LIVE 🔴

The Beat Bible blog is now live! Read the instructions in this post to get to the blog!

Everything is explained in the introduction/faq section, but I'll put some info here aswell, if you haven't been up-to-date:
The Beat Bible will be a physical book with pretty much every aspect behind music production being covered. A part of the content can be read for free on our blog!

If you want to give it a try, then go ahead! Instructions are within the carousel post. You don't need to sign-up, enter your e-mail, or do anything to read the blog by the way. It is completely free of charge.

Follow to stay up-to-date on The Beat Bible!

Much love! ❤️

🚨BEAT BIBLE UPDATE🚨

Stay tuned as we will be releasing more info about the Beat Bible. Read about the topics that will be covered in our physical, super-handy quick-reference production guide, which will come with:

📖 Great information to help you become a better producer.
📝 Checklists for mixing, mastering, and more, super handy if you are starting out and want clear instructions.
💡 Lots of resources included, like useful websites and tools for producers.
📔 REAL, PHYSICAL book. This physical book will cost roughly the same as the e-books you see.
🆓 Small sections of each chapter will be available for free on our website and IG (stay tuned for the upcoming posts)

In general, this book will also just be a fun read and you will be able to immerse yourself in musical knowledge even if you are not sitting in front of your computer or device. Great for traveling!

Follow us for more!

🚨 NEW ANNOUNCEMENT 🚨

We're diligently crafting a unique book designed for producers. 🎧

You've probably seen many of these, but ours will be a PHYSICAL copy, and at roughly the same price as the e-books. This way, you can flip through the actual pages while you're producing, using it like, well, a REAL BOOK. 📖

If you're grappling with virtually any aspect of producing, then this book will be your perfect companion. The Beat Bible will cover "The 10 Beat Commandments", each addressing a crucial aspect of producing. 🎶

For example, we will include mixing and mastering checklists, exercises like using reference tracks and looking for sounds in the mix, it is going to be fun!

If you're interested, don't hesitate to follow us to stay updated on the book.

Uncover the commandments as we'll be releasing content based on the book. Parts of the book will be shared on our soon-to-be-launched WIP blog for free, so you'll know what to expect! 📚

🚨300 FOLLOWER SPECIAL🚨

FREE Stuff coming your way!

We are working hard on our upcoming free beat pack. We let you vote on the vibe of the pack, and then went ahead and got to work.

Results:
- Hard, fast trap
- Heroic sounding vibes
- Add some exotic percussion into the drums
- Use mostly electronic instruments.

The pack will be available on Friday the 21st, so be sure to follow us to stay updated! The pack will be available on our BeatStars.

🚨STOP SCROLLING IF🚨 (🎁Giveaway at the end🎁)

💸 If you're tired of overpriced, mediocre beats
🎵 If you're a musician that wants to release a single, EP, or album
🚀 If you're looking to be guided through your release
💎 If you don't want to overpay for custom, great quality beats
🎁 If you want to benefit from extra free perks, which would otherwise cost you a lot of money
(Free distribution, free artwork, 1 year of promotion on our IG page, free mixing and mastering, beat exclusivity)

If this resonates with you, stop right there! 🛑 We offer four great packages 🎁 that will either start your music career as a new musician, or boost it by providing you a lot of value. All four packages come with the free perks listed on the first picture of this post! 🎉

🚀 "Starter Pack" - Perfect for starting musicians
All perks + 1 custom beat + 1 revision
Only $85

💽 "Single Pack" - 1 Beat for your single, 1 extra beat for you
All perks + 2 custom beats + 3 revisions
Just $150

🎵 "EP Pack" - Go-to choice for the release of an epic EP
All perks + 4 custom beats + 5 revisions
For $250

📀 "Album Pack" - We'll work with you to transform your vision into a fully-fledged musical album
All perks + 12 custom beats + 2 revisions per beat
$650 (BEST VALUE 🎯)

FAQ: ❓

- How long is each beat? 🎵
Unspecified. We don't look at the length of the beat. We want to offer you as much as we can, so we don't put constraints on the total amount of minutes per beat.

- Do I get revisions? ✍️
Yes. Each pack has its own amount of revisions. Because producing work can be quite taxing, we offer a fixed amount of revisions per pack (see above). For each extra revision, we charge $30. If you've received the package from the giveaway, you get the same amount of revisions. In this case, 5 revisions in total for the EP pack.

🎁 GIVEAWAY: 🎁
To win a FREE EP pack worth $250, all you need to do is:
1️⃣ Be our follower on Instagram (also after applying)
2️⃣ Comment "FREE PACK"
3️⃣ Share this post to your IG stories.

🔥 HOW TO STAY LIT 🔥
(Burnout prevention tips)

Here are some unique tips for music producers on how to avoid burning out!

Overall, it's good to keep your work interesting, so I've created some tips for this!

1. Diversification
Simply try new things! Explore new genres, styles, techniques, anything to open up your world of musical knowledge. This way, you don't wind up doing the same things every day, and you learn a lot as a bonus.

2. Habits > willpower
Instead of forcing yourself to it, you need to turn it into a habit. Think about it. Do you need to think about brushing your teeth every morning? Do this with producing. Start out small, and work your way up to the point where producing is part of your every day life.

3. Gamification
I use this one myself a lot. When I'm working on some music, I like to challenge myself to complete a beat in one hour, or to take a scale and delete three notes. Challenge yourself by limiting yourself, and see how far you can go.

💬SOUND OFF SATS 8💬

AI will take over the music industry.

TRUE or FALSE? Comment what u think!

Special thanks to



Want to get tagged too? Join the discussion & leave a comment!

🔊SOUND-OFF SATS 7🔊

Last week, we discussed who would be the most influential music producer. Well, the discussion was one-sided, as all of us thought deserves this spot 😂

This week's question is a bit more technical! Which DAW (Digital Audio Workstation, like FL Studio or Ableton), has the best stock plugins?

Is it going to be , , , , or even ? I wonder what you all think!

🗒️CHEAT SHEET🗒️

Those are the usual compression settings for electric guitars.

Yeah, yeah, I know that cheat sheets aren't the best approach to mixing.

Obviously, you need to use your ears to achieve a great mix, but this chart is a great way to start, especially if you're a beginner who doesn't know what to do!

By the way, I misspelled the word "acoustic", my bad 😉

Save this post for future use!

🎛️BETTER CHORDS🎹

Sometimes, you don't need to be a pro music theory expert to improve your chord progressions. There are simple approaches to writing chords.

Use perfect fifth chords, keep it simple (you don't want to know how simple some pop songs are), be confident to smash in some out-of-key notes (listen if it feels good, dissonance can be beautiful), and of course, inversions!

To add to this: inversions are a great way to give variety to even a 4 or 2 bar chord progression. You can invert notes, and each time the progression will sound different. Do this if you feel too lazy to find a good-sounding progression to go along with your main chord loop.

💬READ CAPTION💬

Welcome to our new series, where we delve into the features of Arturia synths in the pack. Today, we're exploring the Vocoder V.

1. Advanced Panel: Access this by clicking on "Advanced" in the top-right toolbar. This panel allows you to switch to mods and effects view.

2. Voice Input/Sample Player: Choose between "voice input" mode (use your mic with the vocoder) or "sample player" mode (load up to 16 samples). Please note: Voice input isn't supported in FL Studio, so use the standalone plugin instead. You can also control the playback direction of your samples.

3. Voice Input Settings: Adjust EQ and compression settings for voice input. The "pitch tracker" feature lets you control the synthesizer with your voice.

4. Vocoder Panel: Manage the parameters of the voice part of the vocoder.

5. Vocoder EQ + Patcher: Create unique sounds by linking certain frequencies together. The voice/synth control allows you to balance the mix between voice and synth. Click the headphones icon to solo either sound. Click the "blank" panel to access patcher presets.

6. Carrier Panel: Control the synthesizer's oscillators, attack/release, and pitch.

We hope this guide helps you get the most out of your Vocoder V! If you found this useful, don't forget to like, share, and comment. 🎹🎶

📣ANNOUNCEMENT: Next Tuesday, we'll be diving into the features of the OP-XA. Make sure to follow us so you don't miss out!

⭐ SLATE DIGITAL GUIDE 1 ⭐

Welcome to a new series of posts where we will guide you through all Slate Digital plugins, including the Virtual Mix Rack.

Make sure to save this post for future use!

1. Air & Earth bands.
Earth: Turn on/off to control sub-frequencies
Air: Turn on/off to control very high frequencies.

2. Shift-click on any frequency k**b to enable the "frequency-seeker" smart module, which helps you identify useful frequencies, but also helps to remove conflicts between frequencies.

3. Solo-band. Use this to listen to isolated frequencies. Super helpful if you're trying to find harsh/annoying sounds.

4. Overall EQ strength.

5. Fire/neutral/water slider.
Turn up to "fire" to get a more textured, colourful EQ. Slide down to "water" to get a flat, simple EQ.

Overall, this EQ is great for all kinds of EQ'ing, including mixing. Personally, I like to use this EQ to get a clear sound from guitars, pads, and sometimes vocals.

✍️PRODERS TAKE NOTE✍️

Here's a couple sites to help you strive in producing dope hits.

⚪FILL IN THE BLANK⚪

The most influential producer is _______

Special thanks for:

For their answer on last week's question: Are albums still relevant today?

💎COMING SOON💎

The Piano Deluxe Pack - Featuring realistic piano chord & melody loops.

Release date: May 28th

Follow for more updates!

📝 BEAT BLOCK 📝

How to overcome beat block? Well, there is a cool approach to this.

The artist & the scientist - The two driving forces behind your beat, need to live in harmony within your mind.

When you're being too technical, go back to the creative side and have some fun, discover new things. This works vice-versa, too.

Inspired by Curtis King's video 'The REAL CURE To Your Music Producer BEAT BLOCK!

🚨ANNOUNCEMENT🚨

We spent the last few days to work on a new thing on the website: The Beat Store.

Features:
- Free beats
You will be able to sort out free beats and download them directly.
- Custom beats
You can buy a custom beat directly for the base price (to be announced). From then, we will contact you directly, and work out a custom beat plan.
- Exclusive Licenses
There will be an option to buy an exclusive license for your beat.
- Flexible deals
We try to work with all kinds of artists and different budgets. Contact us for a quote!

For now, we won't show too much, but we do announce that this new beat store will be a great, new way of getting beats. We are working on implementing a music player, so that you can browse easily, in a much more intuitive fashion. This player will also be implemented for our sample packs.

Along with the next free sample pack, we will be releasing this new great feature on Sunday, May 28th!

🚨FREE PLUGINS🚨

Want to play guitar sounds but don't have the means? These free plugins imitate the guitar pretty well.
Use Guitar Rig & Lapo for cool guitar effects like tube saturation, which will make great, realistic guitar tracks.

🚨NEW BUNDLE🚨

Save 60% on this bundle containing Hip-Hop Harvest Packs 1 & 2.

💎 146 super-high-quality loops
⏺️ Includes live guitar & bass recordings
🎹 Chord progressions
🎼 Melodies
🎸 Guitar solos
🧪 Try before you buy - free trials available

The pack is available on the site right now! Grab it & enjoy great sounding loops and samples for a crazy creative workflow and fun beat sessions.

💬 SOUND-OFF SATS #5💬

Welcome to the 5th week of Sound-Off Saturdays!
Scroll to the right to see last week's highlights.

Special thanks for:




For contributing their interesting opinions!

Want to get tagged next week? Comment your opinion below!
Question: "Is the concept of an 'album' still relevant in the age of streaming and singles, or is it an outdated format?

✍️ MIXING TIPS ✍️

There are multiple of ways to create a wide stereo. Here are a few examples.

Remember not to overdo it ;)

🚨DOPE LOOP KIT ALERT🚨

📅 RELEASE DATE: 14th of May
That's right, we're releasing a second version of the Hip-Hop harvest pack. This time, with more synths and keyboard loops, as the last Hip-Hop Harvest pack was heavily focussed on guitar and bass guitar.

Expect these qualities:
- High-quality mixed loops
- Chord progressions to speed up your workflow
- Analog-compressed, saturated drums that will punch through anything
- More 808 loops
- Fun pack to work with

Stay tuned until Friday, may 12th and hear the first previews of the pack! We will be releasing the pack on May 14th.

Follow us for more dope content!